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The last words Phil Jones heard from his son were, "I never want to talk to you again." That's the Church of Scientology for you, he tells Today. "It's a cruel and vindictive organization." Both in their 60s, Phil and wife Willie were members of Scientology for 40 years before leaving two years ago over "demands for money" and "the way people were handled and screamed at," Phil tells Page Six. But then their adult son and daughter, also members, cut off all communication as part of Disconnection, "a form of hypnosis" used to separate families to control members, Phil tells Curbed. The couple tried to reconnect by posting missing posters around their son's workplace. Then they started thinking larger-scale. After raising $14,000 on GoFundMe, the couple has erected a billboard in Los Angeles reading, "To my loved one in Scientology… call me."

The goal is "to make people more aware of Scientology Disconnection, as well as hopefully entice those in Scientology to take that step of calling their loved ones," per the GoFundMe page. Phil and Willie are also using a documentary filmmaker to tell their story, per Us Weekly. "It is shameful that two people desperate for publicity would hook up with a reality TV producer to shamelessly exploit their two adult children over their choice of faith," the Church of Scientology says, adding that the couple is promoting "anti-religious hate and bigotry." The Joneses simply hope their message reaches their son and daughter, the latter of whom reportedly has worked for David Miscavige and Tom Cruise. "We love you guys so much, and miss you so much," says Willie. "We won't stop fighting for you, ever, ever," adds Phil. (Scientology is about "us against them," says Leah Remini.)

Sorry folks, I simply don't have time to reply to all the various comments that have been made here. I hope that you read a book about this subject and gain a happier and healthier life in the future. Meanwhile, good luck to all in any positive and productive endeavors you may pursue.

Nofun

Apr 11, 2016 7:44 PM CDT

From their own website: "There are three basic parts of Man—mind, body and thetan. The thetan is an immortal spiritual being—the individual himself. The thetan inhabits a body and has a mind, which is a collection of mental image pictures. The pictures in the mind contain energy and mass. The energy and force in pictures of painful or upsetting experiences can have a harmful effect upon an individual. This harmful energy or force is called charge." Lets list the illogical statements in this nonsense: 1) So a person has mind, body and thetan. The thetan is the soul/spirit but it also has mind. So a person is actually 2 minds, a body and a thetan. No bad illogic for the first sentence. 2) The thetan mind is a collection of mental pictures. No synapses or neurons but mental pictures nonetheless OK.... 3) These mental pictures have energy and mass. So this thetan which is a spirit without mass (and presumably energy) has a mind which has mass and energy. If this were true then the vessel for this mind would have to have mass and energy too so it wouldn't be a soul/spirit. Also science has a multitude of instruments to detect the presence of mass and energy ...why don't these seem to able to find this thetan? 4) Now these mental pictures can be upsetting and thus have harmful energy called 'charge'. Whoa hold on! So these mental pictures encompass entire experiences .... but a) They admit a person has a mind and the person must of have these experiences. So wouldn't the person's mind have these images ...why do we need a thetan back up copy? b) Now this 'charge' is just a term for harmful energy and the magic E-meter measures this. So the 'charge' is just electricity? Electricity is in the real world, not in the spirit world and the human brain does work on electrical signals between synapses .... so the question is how does this E-meter separate out human real world brain activity from thetan mind activity. 5) There is only a trillion other questions as to why anyone should not regard Scientology as illogical gobbledygook.

K.C.

Apr 11, 2016 5:52 PM CDT

The first sentence says it all about how so many people are willing to be brainwashed by organized religion. For a related topic, we can get reminded about the situation by reading Matthew 10:34-35 and Luke 12:51-53